Infinity In Your Hands
by skywalker05
Summary: On the Planet of Resurrection, the Force shows the dead to the living. When this mysterious world joins the New Republic, Luke goes looking for his mother. Slightly EU AU, slightly LukeOC.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: This is the result of a title challenge ArgenteusDraco, wordswithout, and I are participating in. Although it is not at all essential for you to have read my prior work to understand this one, a few characters have their origins elsewhere. Master Kell and De'Shar first appear in 'The Alternate Saga', while Cy first appears in 'Rebellion', which chronicles her relationship to Luke. This story hypothetically takes place between the founding of the Jedi Academy and the Akanah Pell incident. _

**Star Wars: Infinity in Your Hands**

**The Jedi are flourishing again. A message has come to Master Luke Skywalker at the fledgling Jedi Academy on Yavin IV; M'rytlil, the so-called Planet of Resurrection, has decided to join the New Republic. Its viceroy requests that Master Skywalker be its first official visitor.**

**Rumors say that the Force shows the dead to the living on M'rytlil. Luke seeks his mother. He travels with his apprentice Cy-Raxx Neirharmn, Master Corran Horn, Master Kell, and De'shar, a representative of the Republic's government.**

**They have been given coordinates to land on M'rytlil, but neither escort nor communication arrives from their contact as they orbit the planet…**

"Being a soldier and official observer seemed too cruel for you," said Kell from the co-pilot's seat, good-natured amusement lighting up her dark eyes. To smile she opened her mouth, baring sharp fangs. Her people, the Lizz-Sur, were descended from crustaceans and had become an intelligent, proud people with orange scales, retractable claws at their wrists, forked tails, and dragon-esque heads from which two thin antennae sprouted. Kell spoke not through her long mouth but through gills. "So you became a _lawyer_?"

"It's called a _barrister_," replied the Pho Ph'eahian beside her. Her wide ears were perked, while her four blue-furred hands rested on the control board.

"Or a leeching mynock," joked Kell.

They smiled, each in their own way. The two had worked together once before and disliked each other immensely, but the relationship had improved into one of respect and humor with the occasional emotionally charged, possibly armed spat. Here again Kell served as a Jedi and De'shar as a political liaison.

--//--

Four ships cut through the white clouds of M'rytlil. One was De'shar's _Pheahia, _a box-shaped but comfortable craft for up to seven passengers and two crewmembers; the others were X-Wings, one painted entirely pine green and one sporting the incredible Death Star kill insignia. Inside the third starfighter, Cy Neirharmn focused on guiding the ship downward, relieved to no longer be left entirely alone with her thoughts, hyperspace, and the silver Yavinese crystal in her pocket. She had felt claustrophobic and stuck, when she thought about her mental state at all. The Jedi Academy had been paradise for a time, and then adjustments got harder as they targeted emotions which were more and more integral to what she thought of as herself. She felt stuck between human and Jedi, soldier and peacemaker, child and adult, warm life and freezing space.

--//--

A mossy, green grass carpeted the plains around the spacedocks. The docking facilities had been recently constructed, and sat like surreal gray water lilies on a green sea. There were no walls with splash dampeners, so Luke and the others had to remain in the ships for a few moments while wind blew the radiation of their passing out to the mountains.

The Jedi Master propped his hands behind his head.

The welcoming party of Reeras, the natives of M'rytlil, were standing the appropriate distance away, waiting to welcome the Jedi to the Planet of Resurrection.

When the oxygen-rich air had returned to normal, Luke shut down his ship completely and exited, unfolding the ladder from its hatch beside the cockpit. After him the others exited also, and stood together. Cy's short, tawny hair ruffled in the breeze; she pulled her hood up. Like Corran she was dressed in unassuming white clothes beneath the brown cloak. Luke wore a black version, while De'shar and Kell wore spacer's jumpsuits.

Luke knew general Reeran customs; when the two groups met he shook the blue, seven-fingered hand of the one wearing deep blue robes. The Reera's thin, mostly humanoid bodies were supported by three legs, the rearmost limb acting as a tripod leg or a prehensile tail depending on the situation. Thin, flat tendrils hung from their crested heads, widening to form a natural skirt from their waists to their knees. Each of a Reera's two eyes had two honey-colored irises, over which lids closed far more often than a human's did.

Master Skywalker shook the leader's hand and tried to meet the eyes which had only briefly opened to peruse him.

"Greet_ee_ngs," said the first of the Reeras in accented Basic which put a low screech in for the _e _sound. "The plains were ours, the skies were ours. Part of the Magic place is yours."

"Thank you for allowing us to experience your world."

"I am Tlun, first-rank viceroy." Luke knew that first-rank meant second-in-command.

Another Reera stepped forward to speak to De'shar, who through the bud computer clipped into her ear conversed fluently in its language. The two groups walked across the grass, the mountains growing swiftly nearer, arms of bare rock enfolding them until a narrow canyon separated the plains from whatever landscape lay beyond. The Force hovered over the hidden area, peaceful and pristine. Luke gently noted his companions' emotions: Corran and Kell, alert; Cy, nervous; De'shar, deep in negotiations, economic statistics, and culture-specific laws.

"You may pass alone through h_ee_re. Your weapons are an aspect of the Magic in your culture, we have been told, so you may keep them with you. Know too that I have protection from attack, and you do not know what it is. We will set up hous_ee_ng comfortable to you near the portals…at which you descended."

"'Port', it's called," said Corran. "Thank you again."

Like the former Correlian Security officer, Luke watched the two silent Meeras. One, he knew from the prior arrangements, was the second-viceroy's secretary, who recorded the event with its memory and the electronic recorder-eye clipped to its loose shirt. The second, along with others unseen, were bodyguards.

The second-viceroy said, "You are the first Magic users to come to this world; before the Old R_ee_public faded away our contact with it did. Quietly into the void…Rarely can our people detect the Magic. It is _ee_ger for you?"

"Yes," said Luke; he raised his head and looked about as if for the Force incarnate.

--//--

The Jedi and De'shar emerged from the narrow pathway into a sunny vale, like a very large park ringed with low, jagged mountains. A the base of these series of steps or empty canal locks made of a bone-colored stone were set into the ground, like strange artistic relics of the planet's past.

When Luke stepped out of the shade, water rushed down the steps from an unseen source. Crystal clear, it flowed babbling to itself on either side of the wide valley. Off of the main, horseshoe-shaped course it flowed around obstacles or through looping tunnels, sometimes appearing to run against gravity, surreally flowing up into the mountains. The Force sang inside Luke's head, babbling wordlessly like the stream, awash with joy and freedom. The Jedi found themselves wandering off in separate directions, almost meditating with each step taken across the verdant grass.

The Force led Luke and Cy to the edge of the water. It distracted him with beauty—the stones like perfectly carved vertebrae beneath the water, bittersweet memories of Endor and Leia, white waterfalls where a stone had broken, Cy's hand brushing against his own. He could almost feel the coolness of the water, the molecules between the surface and the air, the iron core of the world. He could almost feel the pleasantly cool water against his face. As he closed his eyes that sensation left him, replaced with barely a transition with the pure Force, empty of event or affiliation, beyond any individual, any individual concern…

Suddenly he fell forward. He flung his arms out but caught himself up to his wrists in swift water. It threatened what remained of his balance—his reverie was shattered. Cy dashed to the edge of the water and grasped his arm before he could collapse further, his shoulder dipping toward the rushing stream, trying to use her weight to pull him back--

In his next conscious moment De'Shar was leaning over him, her eyes serious and sober. "This place is doing something to you!"

"I know." He replied. "And it's affecting me the most. The Force presence here is strong…" He sat up and walked, returning to near the center of the valley. The others gradually gathered around him. Corran too was partly staring into space, but Kell nervously swished her orange-scaled tail back and forth.

"Don't go into trances on me," said De'shar firmly from beside Luke. "We're here to understand what the Force does on this planet that will affect relationships with the New Republic."

"And find my mother," Luke murmured. He knew his father now—knew more than he had ever imagined. His only impressions of the wife of Vader, though, were a knowledge which since his earliest memories had been missing from his heart. Leia's few words confided to him on Endor and Leia herself were the only additions the war had gained him. No records existed concerning his family name anymore. He had never speculated about her as much as about Anakin. He had been a pilot. She…surely the spouse of a Jedi would not have been like the farmers' dusty wives on Tatooine. He said, "It's almost as if this place is tainted, but with the light side instead of the dark."

"It's compelling," said Cy.

"Almost too much so," replied Kell. "As if we're being drawn into a trap."

Cy nodded, her thought flicking back to her own ruminations on trust. She had fought for the Rebellion from just before Hoth to after Endor, moving from teen-age to adulthood during the turbulent war. On Endor she had asked Luke about love, to which he had succinctly replied that he had already gone through far too much emotion.

Then her name had come up for Jedi candidacy. During her time at the Temple she had grown closer to Luke, but the challenging adjustments involved with going from mundane Jedi-admirer to Jedi apprentice were unsettling her.

"I don't think this place is suspicious," said Corran. "It's amazing…even I can feel the definite lightside…_aura_ you were talking about."

Luke looked around. The mountains met against at the far side of the vale, at a darker area that looked like a rock fall or a cave. It would not take long to walk there. "Let's explore a bit…."

Cy still expressed wide-eyed nervousness as they walked onward. She looked small and defenseless next to Kell. But she would occasionally glance at her Jedi master, reminding him of how she could vivaciously smile as she did more than she thought she could, or brim with the profoundly sad combination of awe and impossible goals. She would still occasional finger the storm crystal which should soon become the core of her lightsaber. He needed to talk to her soon about that delayed project.

He did not dwell on that. The shaded part of the valley was revealed to be a cave mouth, a tunnel topped with curling vines and more stone walls guiding water. A leisurely waterfall or vertical lake above the cave mouth split to become the streams to either side. The Force lay like fog inside the cave. Luke thought then that saying one was 'feeling' the Force was not an accurate description; it was really like the _memory _of a physical touch.

He made sure no one in the party objected, and then stepped onto the sandy floor of the cave's cool mouth.

Without warning six presences blossomed into existence in the cave simultaneously with six people, their bodies completely concealed by red and black suits. Their helmets were composed of two sections, a shell-shaped faceplate covering to their cheeks and a round upper part with black goggles. Ragged red capes dragged behind them. Their intentions were neutral to Luke, but they carried vibroblades and unsheathed them as they menacingly ran out of the cave.

De'shar and the Jedi spread out. The Pho Ph'eahian and Cy aimed their blasters—"Don't hurt them," shouted Luke, for the benefit of the strangers as well. "We don't know what they _are_!"

The first armed stranger met Kell. Without prelude she moved faster than it did, sliced open the armor across its chest, and stepped out of the way of a return attack. Her green lightsaber buzzed. While De'shar pumped ineffective stun bolts into the second enemy's chest Luke saw the first's armor gape open, revealing nothing but the rust-colored lining of its back plates.

The armor was uninhabited.

Kell leapt over her fallen foe, retracted her lightsaber and descended on the suit of armor plodding toward De'shar with her wrist-blades outstretched. Four inches of keratin stabbed between the ties laced tightly over where a humanoid's spine would have been.

Luke had his own opponents by now—two, their vibroblades in efficient guards. He Force-pushed the weapon out of the first one's hands and decapitated it. That move continued into a downward strike at the second's head, but his green energy blade was met with its enemy one. Cortosis—Cy screamed, and Luke cast his awareness over the rest of the group as he ducked his foe's clumsy return strike. Corran fenced with his attacker for a few moments before cutting through its hand and hilt. Cy indeed shouted as she dodged the suit of armor which had gotten too close too quickly, but then she slammed a high kick into its sword-arm and shot it point-blank between the neck and chest armor. It would fall. Luke stepped behind his foe and sliced it in two.

When Corran withdrew his silver lightsaber from a suit of armor's chest plate all of the animated armor was incapacitated. Luke could feel them in the Force powerfully now simply as packets of energy—prearranged challenges for visitors in the vale to puzzle or burn through. It was almost as if they had been calibrated to be slightly difficult to the people they encountered.

"It seems that the Force doesn't want us to go in there," Luke said worriedly. He trusted that even De'shar could get that impression from the attack, but saying it kept a bit of his disappointment and resentment at bay. He was certain that the cave would throw more statuesque enemies at them if they tried to enter again. His mother could be alive in the cave, and he would not enter.

Corran looked at the ground. No footsteps—Corran had taught Luke do to useful things such as track. "Someone could have sent them, entirely independent of our purpose here." He scanned the mountain as if dark Jedi were about to emerge from the crags.

"That is possible," said Luke, "but the Meeras said no Force-user had been here for a very long time."

"True, but they also said there were few to no Force-sensitive Reeras who could detect hidden Force users."

Luke nodded. "I can't sense any living presence in there. Keep looking for proof of that possibility."

"Maybe we should ask the Reeras what they've gotten us into, said De'shar angrily.

"They might not know," Luke replied. "But we can ask for their help." He felt disappointed. The Force had given him an overflow of sensation, and then no response to his searching except to symbolically shut the door. He almost welcomed the opportunity to leave which the excessive weirdness had given. If this was not the time…couldn't he survive that? Couldn't he survive being so close?

As they walked back to the Meeras, Kell and De'Shar loudly discussing first-contact morals in the background, Luke moved to Cy's side. In their thoughts each asked the other whether they were all right.

"You need to work on your lightsaber," said Luke.

"I know," she replied. _Can we discuss this later?_

He nodded. "I think I've been told to stop looking for my mother for a while," he said in soft, grim tones.

She smiled. "Just for a while. They didn't try very hard to kill us."

He smiled at and with her, but knew that the rare joy they felt at the prospect of adventure and battle had faded too much with experience to ever touch him the same way again.


	2. Chapter 2

II

Luke was proud of his team. They stood before the sentinel like professional, true Jedi, hands folded inside their sleeves and eyes intent. They also reminded him that he had no idea what a true Jedi was supposed to look like.

The past glory Obi-Wan and Yoda had never had time to tell him about always seemed to haunt him. He had failed pedagogically already, losing some students to the dark side despite the good intentions behind his teachings, because of his lack of knowledge about how a Jedi Order ought to function. Great responsibility burdened him like a weight. But as the last and first Master, he could not show his weakness, his emotions, toward most of his fellows or toward the Reeras, just as he had not showed it to Jabba the Hutt.

When he and his comrades had returned from the Valley of Resurrection—he had named it such in his mind because, surely, he was not going to have to search the entire planet—the Reeras were prepared for them. Five Republic-issue prefabricated shelters, housing that the Reeras knew was guaranteed to suit their guests, sat near the spaceport in a casual square. A sixth, larger building which could be used as a headquarters made up one corner of the square.

The one Reera sentinel opened its eyes and spoke to the Jedi standing before it. "Gr_ee_tings."

Luke looked at it, and it said nothing else. He surmised that it did not ask questions such as 'How was the walk?' or 'Why are you rather damp?' as freely as a human would.

"We'd like to speak to First-Rank Viceroy Tlun," said Luke.

"I will _see_ if he is present. M_ee_anwhile, there is a shelter for each of you."

They waited outside while the Reera consulted with its fellow or fellows inside the largest structure. Then they were ushered inside.

The largest building was also Republic-issue, but the second-viceroy had decorated it to its taste. Green light which waved faintly like the grass had been projected onto the white walls, creating a slightly seasick effect for the humans. The only furniture in the room was a white desk with the leader of the attendant Reeras sitting stiffly behind it. A blue cloth was tacked to the four corner of the roof, making a drooping sky.

The first-rank viceroy's eyes were remaining open now, with the double pupils darting about. To Luke it gave the impression that Tlun wanted to appear fluent in human customs, but was also very uncomfortable with them. The Jedi master made an effort to exude ease and peace of mind as he approached. He remembered not to make small talk or wait for the Reera to ask him what he wanted.

"First-Rank Viceroy Tlun, the visit to the valley was not entirely successful," Luke said, "but there were definite…events."

"I am sorry that there are no Magic-users with which to explain this—" Tlun began.

"We were attacked, sir. Would you be more comfortable discussing this outside?"

The double eyes closed as the alien felt relief. "I would."

All of them moved casually outside and sat on a low hill beyond the square of buildings. De'shar and another Reera—Luke did not notice where it came from, but it was the same one she had been talking to before—moved away and happily spoke their extraterrestrial legalese. Luke sat beside Tlun and Kell, with Corran and Cy nearby. Luke told the story of the Force in the valley and the strange battle.

Tlun said, "Most R_ee_ra transactions take place out h_ee_re under the sun…

"I wish I could explain or _ee_ven analyze your experience, but I cannot. I know that you grow tired of h_ee_aring how none of my people have entered the valley to study it for a long, long time. Take all the days you n_ee_d to learn more. Explore again."

Luke sighed.

Tlun gave no reply.

They all sat in silence for a time. Luke could sense small herbivores in the grasses, predatory avians in the sky, and the Force lying low over the vale.

Corran said, "We ought to see what happens if we try to enter the tunnel again."

"Tomorrow," said Kell, squinting against the yellow sun which was sinking beyond the jagged mountains.

"The second-rank viceroy will s_ee _you in the morn_ee_ng of tomorrow," said Tlun. Luke reminded himself that the second-rank viceroy was the leader of the entire population of Reera. Would he really be able to help, if he, like the rest of his people, knew so little about "Magic", while the Force itself would reveal nothing but seeming antagonism? Then Luke realized how selfish he was being. The real purpose of the mission to M'rytlil was so that the Reeras could ask questions and receive favorable impressions of the Galactic Republic from the Jedi masters and De'shar. Cy was meant to learn about the Force and the unusual uses Jedi were sometimes put to. The mission was not meant to be entirely about the mother of Luke Skywalker.

Still he felt, despite the euphoria and power of the so-called Valley of Resurrection, that this day had been a failure.

Tlun stood and moved away, toward but not immediately into his building. Luke idly wondered if Reeras slept outside. No shelters had been set up for Tlun's aids or guards. Perhaps they all lived in the office buildings, or went home to towns he could not see, or slept standing under the stars with their acute eyes, as usual, comfortably closed.

The Jedi and De'shar moved back to the shelters as well after a time of silence, citing weariness, until Luke and Cy were left alone on the hill. He felt comfortable there, sitting and looking at the waving grass and swiftly darkening sky, but was inwardly disappointed with the day. Cy moved closer and tucked herself against his side, face very serious. A cold breeze stole over the plain, ruffling their brown cloaks.

After a time Cy said, "I know you want me to make a lightsaber. It's the symbol of a Jedi.

"But I've never seen a weapon as important like that. I mean, in holos heroes name their swords and all, but my blaster…is just for shooting people. I don't understand the significance."

He had been wondering what had been delaying her. She always enjoyed combat practice, with whatever sort of weapon, and had been honored when he told her she was ready to build her own lightsaber. During a crystal storm, when the atmospheres of Yavin IV and the gas giant it orbited interacted perfectly, dense gemstones from Yavin's core fell into the atmosphere of the moon. Cy and a few other apprentices had danced with the elements that night, passing lightning bolts through the irregular crystals with the Force to see which ones would conduct energy. Each had finally caught the stone which would become the core of his or her lightsaber, and it had been an exciting time for all involved. But afterward, Cy had kept delaying the actual construction process, despite the fact that she possessed all the necessary technical knowledge.

Luke said, "You went through a trial to catch that crystal. When a Jedi places all the electronic components of his lightsaber together, he goes through another type of trial. As the machinery becomes more than the sum of its parts, the color of the blade is revealed. Red for the dark side, green, blue, or some other colors for the light. Your lightsaber tells something about you. It symbolizes who you are to people you meet. Anyone can carry a blaster and use it well. Not so with a Jedi weapon."

"Master Kell told me some of that…but after it's created. Is the lightsaber a supernatural thing? It's just metal, with a bit of me inside. It's just plasma."

He shrugged. "Maybe it's a symbol that you can take care of yourself. That you can be a weapon for good."

She looked up at him, half serious now. "I don't always want to be able to take care of myself. I like being an apprentice too much, I think. Knighthood means being alone."

"It doesn't. And you've got a lot of years before you're going to worry about Knighthood anyway."

"True." She rested her head against his neck.

He could be Master Skywalker to her, but he could also sit beside her being Luke, beyond good intentions, touching her mind with reassurance. It almost made him happy.


	3. Chapter 3

III

The sun was rising over M'rytlal. The square of shelters near the starships was sprinkled lightly with dew. All was silent, except for Master Skywalker pounding on the silver wall of one the shelters.

"Cy-Raxx!" He shouted. "_Wake up_!"

He blinked as his apprentice's casually angry, sleepy response careened through their burgeoning Force bond.

After a moment she emerged, properly dressed but bleary-eyed, and almost blundered into him. He held her at arm's length; she blinked the sleepiness away and looked up alertly.

"Sorry master."

"I'm sure this is spacelag, not just your overfondness for sleep?"

"Sure master."

"Good." He smiled. "The others have already left to see Second-Rank Viceroy Mnua. We're going back to the valley."

"To fight again?"

"I don't think so. I had an idea."

--//--

Kell, Corran, and De'Shar traveled to see the viceroy, not on a road or in a speeder but through the hardy grass on foot. The Reeras, even De'shar's counterpart, kept an almost reverent silence. The outsiders were glad of it. Walking was expending enough energy without talking.

Cold rain began to drop gently from the darkening sky. The Jedi put their hoods up; De'shar flattened her blue ears against her head. The plain became a dark savanna. The storm was small; the horizon and nearer patches of ground looked bright. The Reera's tendrils which formed their natural skirts raised up, leaving their legs covered to the knee with skirts of cloth, and were natural umbrellas, like wide flowers over their heads.

--//--

Luke and Cy approached the tunnel. The suns still shone brightly over the vale. The Force there clung to Luke like beautiful tatters. He endeavored to focus on the cave. When they stepped inside, six guards again appeared and advanced with their weapons.

Luke murmured to Cy, "No fear."

He held out his hand, fingers spread in a gesture of peace where they were not needed to grasp his deactivated lightsaber. "Our actions here yesterday were rash and incorrect. I offer my apologies to the Force, your master and mine." He feared for the words as they seemed to stumble over each other out of his mouth. His motive, though, rang clearly out. His message met the void, and it replied.

The suits of armor walked back into the tunnel, and the Jedi pair followed. The animate armor sat against the wall and the life force left them. Luke saw the distinct moment when they slumped, clattered slightly as they settled, and became less than the sum of their parts.

The two Jedi walked on.

--//--

Kell saw an entire field—herd? crowd?—of Reeras on the plain below her. They milled about under the suns, some sitting in large groups, others in looser clusters linked by conversation. The rain had stopped and the suns had come out. Most of the Reeras had put down their natural umbrellas, but Kell could still spot some unfolding. The only permanent structures were a few dark gray radio antennae spiking up from the ground.

"Are your people entirely nomadic?" Corran asked First-Rank Viceroy Tlun.

Tlun replied, "We do not sink our shelters into the ground as you do, if that is what you m_ee_an. _Ee_ch of us in this region carry our homes with us." Kell saw rolls of cloth, probably tents, strapped to many of the Reera's backs.

The four descended into the crowd. It resolved itself into structures such as a town she was used to would have; the seated group was a school, the most avid conversationalists were traders, some of whom wore clothes or had skin tones different from Tlun's type. Kell was surprised that the Reera man Tlun brought them to meet was not sitting apart from the others. He was not dressed or shaped differently from them. He was not sitting behind a desk very professionally. He wore a sleeveless red tunic and was, as Tlun slowly approached him with the off-worlders in tow, playing Frisbee with children.

Each small, wide-eyed Reera held a short stick with which it would spin and throw the wooden flying disk. Second-Rank Viceroy Mnua threw the disk to an adolescent with his bare hands, then responded to Tlun's imperative looks by coming over to him and the off-worlders with a smile, a trait apparently shared by Reeras and humans, on his face. De'shar and the Jedi bowed, their eyes never leaving Mnua's face. The secretary or aide handed Mnua a translator with buds for his ear and mouth, her tendrils fluttering. Kell sensed a respect for the Second-Rank Viceroy from her which bordered on romantic love. Only then did the Jedi notice that she had never gotten a sense of gender from First-Rank Viceroy Tlun as she was from these two. Maybe the Reeras had three genders, or temporary ones?

The Jedi and De'shar extended polite greetings to Mnua, which he responded to with gracious, youthful exuberance.

Then he spoke, the translator turning his squeaky Reeran words into unaccented Basic, "I am so glad to be offered a place in the Galactic Republic again. However, before the arrangement is finalized, there is something we must do."

--//--

Luke and Cy emerged from the tunnel into the bottom of a ravine. Hillsides covered by yellow-green grass formed the steep walls of what was almost another small, narrow valley. On the rocky slope directly ahead of them, where it looked like the hillside had disgorged a dense stream of rocks and sent them tumbling down the hill sometime in the past, a circular stone plaque was set against the fallen rocks. Luke approached it, his apprentice tagging behind with one hand on her blaster.

Luke examined the lettering around the edge of the plaque. It was written, to his great surprise and joy, in Aurebesh, and told of a Jedi from the Republic—the Old Republic, he excitedly thought—whose name he did not recognize. That person had come here and studied the Valley of Resurrection. He knew of its guardians, and of how the Force reacted within it. At the unconscious command of a Force-user the water would revitalize the valley's first components, the locks and decorative walls made by mysterious past visitors who had left similar structures on Dantooine and Korriban. If he were pure-hearted enough—or violent enough; apparently someone in the Jedi's party had fought three sets of suits of armor and defeated them and passed through—he could get to the second valley…

And see the dead. There the writing ended. Luke knew not what to do next, and touched the infinity symbols, one side black and one side white, which made up the center of the plaque.

The slope overhead rumbled; rocks were rolling down. Cy flung her hands up and with the Force turned the boulders away from Luke to the sides of the wall. They thudded to the ground.

"Thanks." The Jedi Master had looked up and took his hands away from the wall when he too sensed the impending doom. When Cy had reacted quickly, he was willing to let someone else become experienced in saving lives. He did not get the impression that the fall of boulders was part of the valley's Force presence. It had simply been natural, gravity, and Cy would be able to protect him from almost anything further of that type.

He took a ragged breath, and trusted himself to his apprentice and the Force. The former was harder than he thought, as he acknowledged how similar some of the lessons were that master and apprentice needed to learn from their relationship. Willpower focused on the fulfillment of a dream, he again placed his hands on the symbol of infinity.


	4. Chapter 4

IV

Images formed in front of the stone. He saw a group of people sitting on the grass in front of a curtain of waterfalls and a lake, all of them dressed in finery, with a young teenager standing at the group's front. Luke strove to see her face because he knew that she was the one, she was his mother he had come to see—but then it was her voice he paid attention to. With entertaining anecdotes and brief explosions of poetry, she captivated him as the audience was captivated. He knew not what she was speaking for, but when she asked for support he was willing to get up from the back of the group and raise his hand.

But he was not in the back of the group of Nabooese in the first days of Padme Naberrie's brilliant political career. He was in the Force, and another scene replaced the first one.

The second experience was an impression, not a physical vision; it had been a period of time, but she, the eloquent speaker, had fallen in love with Anakin Skywalker. He was handsome then, a galactic traveler, just like Luke had once imagined him to be. They married, and she grew to know what it was to be in such a relationship with a Jedi. Although their emotions ran hot, they saw one another rarely. When the Clone Wars began to intensify, she worried about him often. Were she to die, as unlikely as an attack on Coruscant would be at this time, he would know through the Force. Were he to die on a battlefield, she might never know the circumstances.

Luke received no visuals for this, but only impressions and emotions. The same was true of the next scene.

Words of betrayal were spoken to her. No one had betrayed her personally, but it felt like Ben—the messenger, an old friend!—had, in a way, when he told her that the slaughter at the Jedi Temple had been enacted by her husband.

Then came a quick visual of Luke's mother kneeling on a platform shielded against rivers of lava, with the malevolent hand of the Force at her throat.

Then she lay in an unfamiliar bed with pain drawing red hazes like the trails of worms across her eyes. She loved and hated Anakin now, but when Ben, younger than Luke had ever imagined, came to her side she had only one truth for him. _There is still good in Anakin._

The last image—and he knew it was the last before it ended, because this time it was real—was of the woman his mother, facing away from him, wearing a red velvet dress. She ran her hands across it, looking down at the floor. She stood in black space, in a world of nothingness and the glass beneath their feet; the Force was quiet.

She turned and looked at him for the first time. Their eyes caught—he sensed pure strength from her, longing and caring, and attention which filled a void in his heart he had forgotten about long decades ago on Tatooine. They stared at one another for a time, and then the Force let Luke gently back into reality.

He stood on the grass before the infinity stone, Cy beside it with her arms crossed. He smiled at her.

"You saw something?" She asked.

"Yeah. Did you?"

"No. I watched you stand."

He turned and walked out; she followed a pace behind. In silence they walked back to camp, then used the Force and the beaten grass to take the route Corran and the others had taken earlier in the morning. It was a comfortable silence, and he felt that if she asked he would tell her what had transpired; but the vision, like Padme's life, was more than the sum of its parts. He thought back on his former opinions of her.

When he had hated Anakin Skywalker for abandoning him, he had hated her. But those moments had not been long, and where he had occupied himself with dramatized imaginings of Anakin's adventures as a freighter captain, he had had no knowledge of her.

Now, he knew that he did not have enough information to judge her—and that that was best. He could look objectively now and see her as beautiful and tragic. Fated, as all of the Skywalkers were. He knew enough now…to know what he did not know.

He thought these things as they walked through the fields of wild grass, and came to the group of Reeras. The offworlders were sitting together on the grass beside a group of children playing a game with a flying disk. Kell was smiling in the way of her species, crocodilian jaws agape, and De'shar was eating a pastry, as was First-Rank Viceroy Tlun, his secretary, and a third Reeran. This one stood after the two Jedi Masters turned their heads as Luke approached.

"Welcome!" He said through a thin translation device. "I am Second-Rank Viceroy Mnua."

Luke bowed and murmured his name.

"Your associates have been excellent to me! I haven't seen such a display of skill at Frisbee for…since the upset of L'tan! The New Republic has given us many kind entreaties in the realms of politics. But I have always believed that leisure time is a show of character. Was the Magic appeased, by your visitation?"

The shift in topic was so quick and the talk about leisure so foreign to Luke that he took a moment to answer. "It gave me what I came for," he said, seriously.

Mnua smiled. "Excellent. My associates are negotiating finalities with Lady De'Shar right now. Soon the senate will see our faces." He smiled, conspiratorial. "And perhaps your HoloNet will show our sports."

"It will be improved by them," Cy said formally, eyeing the bizarre Frisbee teams.

"My apprentice, Cy-Raxx," said Luke quietly. He did not know why he didn't want to talk. He felt serious and, although it was not the expression he thought of first, lonely. The Force had made it clear that Padme, not being Force-sensitive, could not speak to him as his father and teachers had.

Mnua said, "I'm sure you have heard this before, but it is rare for Magic-users to be born to the Reera people. The rest of your team proved themselves already; I would like for you too to demonstrate the peaceful applications of your power. Our planet is imbued with it; we are not superstitious. But it has been a long time since we have seen a Grand Master."

He restrained himself from saying _I am no Grand Master. I have been named such by no one. _

Instead he nodded sagely and did not have to say anything, because one team of Reeran children scampered off the field and to Kell and her group. The two groups switched. Kell, Corran, and De'Shar jogged onto the field, and Luke found himself laughing as they formed up against the child Reerans, sticks in their hands and joy in the Force. The children, who had just returned, grimy from the game, clustered around Luke, Cy, and Mnua and looked up at them with strange, double, golden eyes. They shuffled their feet and swayed their skirt-like tentacles.

One spoke a word from the back of the crowd and the others stilled.

"Tolpu asks for magic," Mnua said.

Luke knelt down to the children's' level and looked about for something to levitate. After some thought, he spoke. "The Magic is great power. It must be used carefully." He glanced at Mnua, who translated. "I will not give you tricks." After the translation the children stilled again; some lowered their heads, and Luke could sense their disappointment. He was glad to redeem it. "But I will give my apprentice a test." Reeran heads perked up again.

Luke stood; the children formed a scraggly line in front of him. "Cy," Luke said, spying an extra Frisbee stick on the grass at the end of the group of children, about two meters away. "Bring me that stick."

The challenge for her would not be to levitate the object. It would be to do it when so many impressionable eyes were upon her, and when experience told her that there probably was a twist to the simple task, which for once there wasn't. But the Force was with her; she lifted one hand, drawing bravery and serenity from the light side and from her master. The stick floated over the heads of some of the children and into her hand.

Many of the Reerans made hooting sounds and said words; Mnua interpreted them as expressions of delight or amazement. Two of the children from the middle of the group darted away and hid behind the group with their arms around one another.

Luke and Cy performed a few more Force powers for the children. Delight clung to them in a cloud, so that even though the show was over quickly, they returned to the sidelines to watch the game happily. The frightened pair sat on the ground, one's face buried between the tendrils on the other's shoulder, with his own wrapped tightly around his legs. They looked up when it was only the two Jedi and Mnua, whom they reacted to not as if he were a president of the planet but as if he were their older brother, standing beside them. They babbled.

"They do not mean to have offended you," Mnua said. "They were frightened by the space between the stick and your apprentice's hand."

"I understand," said Luke. "These powers do not seem natural to some. Your fear is that I had, when I first saw a sandstorm. The world had become a wall; it had changed. It bore down on the house. The Force can do that too. But it is natural. The light side is natural to us." He reached out and, although the Reerans recoiled at first, he formed a miniature cloud in his hands, condensing the moisture in the air, reaching _down _to accelerate the molecules so that when the construct approached the Reeran, it gave off a gentle heat, and also a psychic warmth. Even though the Reerans were not Force-sensitive, they would be able to see gentleness and consideration in his eyes.

He allowed them to feel the miniature storm, and then dissipated it, and stood up, inviting them to do the same. They did, and walked back to their peers, no longer frightened of what they did not understand.

Mnua urged on a child who almost tripped over its tendrils as it ran past Kell with the Frisbee and threw.

Luke sensed that Cy wished to speak to him. He led her a few steps away, just beyond the unofficial circle of Reeran activity. She showed him the lightsaber crystal in her hand, turning it over and over with her fingers.

She said, "You told me that making my own lightsaber, putting this heart in it, symbolized who I am, and that I can take care of myself. I _am _self-sufficient, when I have to be. I survived a war. I survived knowing that it's not always your own skill that determines whether or not you survive a war. I _am _something different now…I'm not just a Jedi, either…" Her intentions were clearer than words. _This means you'll stay with me. I'm afraid you might not. _

She held the crystal out to him.

He took it.


End file.
